For as long as I can remember, I've had to listen to most of my peers bitch and moan about anything and everything that required effort. From school to work, it was all the same.
Things began to crystallize during the first of my summer jobs. What was the innate skill that I possessed but others did not? Well, there was no gene for mopping floors or slopping food onto a plate that I was aware of, so I wasn't too sure.
But there was a difference. With rare exceptions, other workers were sluggish. They moped around and complained. Oh sure, they were social. They were much better at bullshitting than I was. But as awkward as I was conversing with these people, they were as awkward with a mop. Or with a file cabinet. Or with a stack of papers. Or a cash register. Or a tray of mashed potatoes.
At least I had an excuse for my dopey awkwardness. After all, if you're someone who thinks you should earn your paycheck, what exactly do you say to someone who doesn't? Not much, that's for sure. But what was their problem? They didn't have to talk to the mop (not that it would have been interested in them anyway), all they needed to do was to push it back and forth. And there was no calculating involved, so intelligence wasn't a factor. What was it that I had that they didn't?
It's time to give away the little secret.
It's called the will to do your best. This is what most people never had, and what they resented me for - and probably what most of the regular readers of this site had and were resented for.
There was a time I was actually ashamed of this. You know why? Because I actually gave a shit about these lazy idiots - and didn't want to "hurt their feelings". It's true. I thought that by doing my best, which 99% of the time was better than everybody else, I'd be "making them feel bad". In other words, I'd be screwing with their self esteem. And that that was somehow wrong.
Why did I think that?
- Because I was taught by just about every adult I met that it was bad to "hurt other people's feelings" (whether or not those feelings made an ounce of sense.)
- Because without fail, I'd see a bullshit, resentful attitude in people when I did do my best.
Well, after years of taking this without understanding it, it's time for me to give back. I just want to state for the record, and for everyone else out there like me, that we're onto you. We know who you are, and we know you don't have an excuse in the world for your incompetence. You choose not to exert effort - the effort which only you can exert. And we have no shame for our ability - our choice - to do our best.
I heard one of the most amazingly moral statements in my life this past weekend. It was from a friend, who said it completely innocently, as a simple statement of fact. The statement was:
"It's easy to be the best. You just do your damnedest."
I've come to realize that most people in the world don't have what it takes to understand that statement. To understand that statement, you need to have the desire to be the best. You need to have done your damnedest at least once in your life. And you need to have the self esteem to know that you have the capability of being the best.
It just so happens that when you think the boss is a prick for making you push a mop, there's not a chance in hell you're going to understand that statement. If you're in the habit of saying "Is it Friday yet?" four days a week, you're not going to understand that statement. If you're great at bitching about how someone else makes your job more difficult, but are incapable of producing something top-notch yourself, you're not going to understand that statement. (And I mean top-notch in the sense that it is top-notch, not that others are stupid or naive enough to accept the crap you produce as top-notch.)
I want to send a special message to all those people who don't understand the above statement: I understand. And there are more of us out there. And whether you resent us or not, we're going to continue to do our best. Whether you feel like a fool because we do better than you, we're going to continue to do our best. Whether or not you get left in the dust without a shred of self esteem, we're going to continue to do our best. Whether or not you make jokes about us for being successful, we're going to do our best.
Whether or not you feel like shit because you're waiting at the bus stop when we drive past you in our Porsche, we're going to continue to do our best. Whether or not you're sitting around ashamed of your 800-pound ass when we run past you on our last mile of the marathon, we're going to continue to do our best. Whether or not you do your best, we're going to continue to do our best.
The best you can hope for is to become one of us.
We'll take you anytime you're ready. We just ain't waiting for you.
